In 1924, Margaret Sanger wrote the following to argue on
behalf of birth control practice:

Everywhere we look, we see poverty and large families going
hand in hand. We see hordes of children whose parents cannot feed, clothe, or
educate even one half of the number born to them. We see sick, harassed,
broken mothers whose health and nerves cannot bear the strain of further
child-bearing. We see fathers growing despondent and desperate, because their
labor cannot bring the necessary wage to keep their growing families. We see
that those parents who are least fit to reproduce the race are having the
largest number of children; while people of wealth, leisure, and education are
having small families.

It is generally conceded by sociologists and scientists that
a nation cannot go on indefinitely multiplying without eventually reaching the
point when population presses upon means of subsistence. While in this country
there is perhaps no need for immediate alarm on this account, there are many
other reasons for demanding birth control. At present, for the poor mother,
there is only one alternative to the necessity of bearing children year after
year, regardless of her health, of the welfare of the children she already
has, and of the income of the family. This alternative is abortion, which is
so common as to be almost universal, especially where there are rigid laws
against imparting information for the prevention of conception. It has been
estimated that there are about one million abortions in the United States each
year.

To force poor mothers to resort to this dangerous and health destroying
method of curtailing their families is cruel, wicked, and heartless, and it is
often the mothers who care most about the welfare of their children who are
willing to undergo any pain or risk to prevent the coming of infants for whom
they cannot properly care.

In the 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI
reiterated the Roman Catholic Church's position against birth control practice:

In conformity with these landmarks in the human and Christian
vision of marriage, we must once again declare that the direct interruption of
the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and
procured abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded
as a licit means of regulating birth. Equally to be excluded, as the direct
teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct
sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the
woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the
conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural
consequences, proposes, whether as an end of as a means, to render procreation
impossible.

Birth control practice is still a controversial subject in the
USA, even though it is thought to be quite prevalent. How prevalent is
it? We will cite some survey data from the MARS OTC/DTC Pharmaceutical
Study. The relevant portion of the data comes from 15,472 females between
the ages of 18 and 49 who filled out mail questionnaires in 2001 and 2002.
Among these survey respondents, 19.1% indicated that they were practicing some
form of birth/fertility control, such as taking contraceptive pills and using
other products such as diaphragms, cervical caps, intra-uterine devices, morning
after pill, Norplant and so on. This projects to around 12.5 million
persons. This will be an understatement of the
incidence of birth control practice in total, since the number does not include vasectomy,
sterilization, coitus interruptus, condom use, etc.

In the following chart, we show the incidences by age,
race/ethnicity and marital status. From these frequency distributions, the
most likely profile is that of a young and single white woman.

In that next chart, we show the incidences by education,
employment and annual household income. The most likely profile would be
that of an educated working middle-class female. We note that the
incidences are low among those who have low household income and who have not
graduated from high school.

In the final chart, we show the incidences by the presence of
children in the households of the respondents. The highest incidence is
among those households in which a child was just born within the past
year. This decision is clearly tied in to a desire to avoid having
multiple children immediately.